74 minutes

So, the Audio CD's runtime is set by standards at 74 minutes. This doesn't mean that all CDs must last that long, but that a medium, to comply with the Audio CD standard, must have certain characteristics that, among other things, ensure it can hold at least 74 minutes of 16-bit, SR 44100 stereo audio (80-minute CDs arrived later, and 74 minutes has always remained the minimum runtime; note that the Philips prototype was an 11.5cm disc instead of a 12cm one, and lasted 66 minutes).
But why 74 minutes? Perhaps because it was the maximum possible or reasonable at the time? No. It would have been easy to get to 75 or 76 minutes. On the other hand, if the problem was not to compress the tracks too much, 72 or 70 minutes would have been more reasonable. Why 74 minutes?

The legend, reported as true by many sources, says that Philips/Sony chose 74 simply to fit the entire Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which, in performances at the time, had a duration approaching this limit.
In reality, some performances lasted even longer. For example, Kubelik's version from 1974 runs to 77 16 1/2 inches. So the question shifts to which version they wanted to fit on a single CD.

Here the legends diverge. One early version claims that it was a Karajan version of about 73 1/2 inches, recorded for Polygram, which was then part of Philips. This would explain Philips' desire to release a performance by one of their most famous artists on a single CD. Karajan himself confirmed this in an interview. But the strange thing is that the performance I have, on a DG CD from '77, lasts only 67 minutes. Is there a Karajan version that exceeds 70 minutes?

The second version offers a more banal/romantic explanation, depending on your point of view. According to the latter, the version of the 9th was the one preferred by the wife of Norio Ohga, a high-ranking Sony executive and president since 1982. Again, the legend is supported by a 1992 interview with Ohga himself.

In any case, it is certain that Beethoven's 9th was taken into consideration in defining the CD Audio standard because various Philips documents from the time recommend it as a test piece for the quality of a medium, both in terms of dynamic range and its duration, which is "close to the theoretical maximum."

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